Definition of "mastiff"

At which time, they wryte that Demoſthenes told the people of Athens, the fable of the ſheepe and woulues, how that the woulues came on a time, and willed the ſheepe, if they woulde haue peace with them, to deliuer them their maſtiues that kept them.

1579, Plutarke of Chæronea [i.e., Plutarch], “The Life of Demosthenes”, in Thomas North, transl., The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romaines, […], London: […] Richard Field, page 908

As ſaluage Bull, whom two fierce maſtiues bayt, / When rancour doth with rage him once engore, / Forgets with wary warde them to awayt, / But with his dreadfull hornes them driues afore, / Or flings aloft or treades downe in the flore, / Breathing out wrath, and bellowing diſdaine, / That all the foreſt quakes to heare him rore: […]

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, page 302

They fill’d the capitoll, and Pompei’s circke; / Where, like ſo many maſtiues, biting ſtones, / As if his ſtatues now were ſenſiue growne / Of their wild furie, firſt, they teare them downe; […]

1603 (first performance; published 1605), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Seianus his Fall. A Tragœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, page 434

Avaunt, you curs! Be thy mouth or black or white, Tooth that poisons if it bite; Mastiff, greyhound, mongrel grim, Hound or spaniel, brach or him.

c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene vi]

The conquering foe they soon assail’d; / First Trulla stav’d, and Cerdon tail’d, / Until their Mastives loos’d their hold: / And yet alas! do what they could, / The worsted Bear came off with store / Of bloudy wounds, but all before.

1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, canto III, page 63

Soon as Ulyſſes near th’encloſure drew, / With open mouths the furious maſtives flew: […]

1725, Homer, “Book XIV”, in [Alexander Pope], transl., The Odyssey of Homer. […], volume III, London: […] Bernard Lintot, page 233

Her, who did erst the lengthened fight maintain, / And heaped the death-pile red with Prankish gore, / The Vert fangs now to vassalage constrain: / The mastives old and young, Verrucchio bore, / Who in their lawless rule Montagna slew, / Make their teeth augres where they wont of yore: […]

1843, Dante Alighieri, translated by John Dayman, The Inferno of Dante Alighieri, Translated in the Terza Rima of the Original, with Notes and Appendix, London: William Edward Painter, […], page 173

The Mastiff is a good fighter, and can kill a wildcat, taking the necessary punishment well, as we found out when we once trapped one of these small lynxes.

1896, Theodore Roosevelt, chapter 11, in Ranch Life and the Hunting-Trail, The Century Co.

Neither of them could say how many years it had been since the week-long poisoning epidemic, which first took their father’s bulls, then his mastives, then the man himself; […]

1989, Bob Shacochis, “Les Femmes Creoles: A Fairy Tale”, in The Next New World, New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, Inc., page 22

Milei’s allies reject his portrayal as an unbalanced powder keg, although they do not refute claims their leader takes counsel from his cloned mastiffs.

2023 November 19, Tom Phillips, “Argentina holds breath as far-right Milei seizes narrow runoff advantage”, in The Guardian‎